(PRESS RELEASE) -- Las Vegas, Nevada - The Ultimate Fighting
Championship® and the Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Southern
Nevada (“The Center”) have announced a dynamic new partnership,
designed to raise awareness of the realities of HIV among young
individuals under 30.

In the 1990s, there were major breakthroughs in both the treatment
of and education about the HIV pandemic. Because of anti-viral
drugs, HIV is no longer the death sentence it once was; and because
of the tremendous mainstream media focus on the disease in the
1990s there was an educated population who practiced safe sex. The
result was infection rates fell significantly.

Over the last 15-years complacency has set in, however, resulting
in a younger generation ill-informed about the dangers and
realities of the disease. The Center for Disease Control and
Prevention stated the ignorance of young Americans on the realities
of HIV and AIDS is “shocking”, “astonishing” and “just
unacceptable”. Last year, half of the 50,000 Americans infected
with the disease were under the age of 30.

The UFC and The Center are now picking a fight with that ignorance
by launching an awareness campaign called “Protect Yourself At All
Times”.

UFC COO Ike Lawrence Epstein said: “As someone who grew up in the
1980s and saw the virus beaten back with education in the 1990s, I
was stunned to learn from our friends at The Center that HIV is
still having such a dramatic impact on young people. No other sport
reaches the under 35 demographic like the UFC does and the UFC felt
a duty to try and do something about this situation. It gives me
great pride to announce the UFC will be partnering with The Center,
LBGTQ+ and other organizations for a project we are calling
“Protect Yourself At All Times”. This will be a local, national and
ultimately international campaign designed to educate the UFC’s
vast core audience of under 35s about the realities of HIV.”

Robert (“Bob”) Elkins, CEO of The Center, said: “HIV stopped being
a ‘gay issue’ long ago but, unfortunately, it has now very much
become a ‘young issue’. The jarring fact is that young gay men are
becoming infected at a much higher rate. The lack of both awareness
and accessible information for teenagers and young adults is truly
frightening. It’s like the 1990s never happened in terms of
education and public awareness. In the UFC, we have the perfect
partner to fight this ignorance, and we thank them for joining us
in this battle.”

Elkins, who is openly HIV positive after contracting the virus 27
years ago, added: “When I first found I was HIV positive, my
friends and family thought it was a death sentence. But I wouldn’t
accept that and started anti-retroviral treatment which I’ve
continued ever since. Today, my viral load is virtually
undetectable, thanks to my doctors and the meds. But through
education and medical advances we began to fight back against the
disease. Living with HIV is manageable, but we cannot allow
advancements to take away our focus on preventing new infections
through public awareness and education.”

Protect Yourself At All Times has two key messages:

· Get tested; know your status

· Protect yourself with safe sex practices

UFC Hall of Famer Forrest
Griffin will serve as a spokesman for the campaign. He said: “I
had 15 fights in the UFC Octagon during my career, and before each
and every one of them, I had a HIV test. I’m encouraging everybody
to show themselves and their partners the same respect I showed my
opponents by getting tested and protecting themselves at all
times.”

UFC No.5 ranked women’s bantamweight Liz
Carmouche, who is also a spokesperson, added: “There’s a
feeling of invincibility that comes with being young, with being
fit and the prime of your life. But I learned when I was in the US
Marines just like I’ve learned as a UFC fighter, no-one is
invincible, and that you have to project yourself at all
times.”

The on-going Protect Yourself At All Times campaign will be rolled
out during the lead-up to World AIDS Day on December 1 and will
include:

· The UFC will fully support The Center’s LGBTQ+ programme, which
offers free HIV tests to the wider Las Vegas community

· The UFC will be creating public service announcements which will
be distributed across its powerful media platforms

· The UFC will also be donating promotional inventory to the
campaign, beginning with a full-page ad in next month’s UFC 360
magazine, and ask its partners to donate similar space to raise
issue awareness.

For more information on The Center’s efforts with LGBTQ+ visit
www.lgbtqpoz.org.

About the Ultimate Fighting Championship® Universally recognized
for its action-packed, can’t-miss events that have sold out some of
the biggest arenas and stadiums across the globe, the UFC® is the
world’s premier mixed martial arts (MMA) organization. Owned and
operated by Zuffa, LLC, headquartered in Las Vegas and with offices
in London, Toronto, Beijing and Sao Paulo, UFC produces more than
35 live events annually. The UFC is the largest pay-per-view event
provider in the world. In 2012, the UFC burst into the mainstream
with a landmark seven-year broadcast agreement with FOX Sports
Media Group for live events and thousands of hours of programming
including the longest-running sports reality show on television,
The Ultimate Fighter®, moving to FOX Sports 1 in September
2013.

The UFC has a long history of teaming up with charities and
continue to fund and support local organizations that empower youth
and promote a healthy family environment for children. For more
information about UFC in the Community visit
www.UFC.com/community.

About The Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Southern Nevada The
Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Southern Nevada (The Center) is
a community-based organization which supports and promotes
activities directed at furthering the well-being, positive image
and human rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and
queer community, its allies, and low to moderate income residents
in Southern Nevada.